DeSantis’ Potential Senate Run in 2016

Popular conservative and Navy Reserve Officer, Rep. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.), is mulling over a possible run for the U.S. Senate, if sitting Senator Marco Rubio decides to vacate his seat and run for president.

DeSantis has been talking to local Jacksonville-area donors about the possibly running for the seat in 2016, and went as far as to tell radio show host Hugh Hewitt that “It’s something worth thinking about.

DeSantis added:

“I think 2016 is going to be a major national security election, I think it’s important that we run candidates up and down the ballot who understand these issues and want to reorient our foreign policy so that it’s based on American strength, we’re backing our allies and we are being firm with our enemies.”

If Rubio leaves the Senate and DeSantis does makes the run, the Punta Gorda, Florida resident will most likely face off with Florida CFO Jeff Atwater, who flirted with a run for the Senate in 2012.

Atwater would be a formidable candidate, having proven that he could raise big campaign loot during his two over-achieving and winning statewide campaigns.

But while Atwater would be the favorite to win that Republican primary race, DeSantis’ track record of sticking it to Boehner and the rest of the “establishment” Republicans on Capitol Hill, as well his staunch conservative voting record, could and probably would garner him conservative grassroots support across Florida, as well as the rest of the country.

But again, this would only happen if Rubio steps down.

According to one of Rubio’s close advisors, who confirmed to me his week that a Rubio presidential run was already in the works, a Rubio presidential campaign would run with a “bunker-type” strategy.